Sophia Bush Talks Chad Michael Murray

Sophia Bush Gets Candid About Her Marriage To Chad Michael Murray

If you ever think that your breakup drama is too much to handle, just remember that Sophia Bush had to pretend to like Chad Michael Murray on camera for years on One Tree Hill — after they'd broken up.

The Chicago P.D. actress, who rarely talks about her ex, has penned an essay in Cosmopolitan that reveals exactly what that the short-lived marriage taught her.

In the candid new essay, which addresses why people should stop their quest to find "The One," the actress reveals her reason for marrying Murray in 2005, when she was 24-years-old.

"In my 20s, when I was starting out my career as an actor, I wasn’t looking for a relationship, but one found me and became serious, even though I hadn’t planned to settle down until my 30s. But when the person you’re with asks you to marry him, you think: 'This must be happening because it’s supposed to.'"

Alas, the pair separated after only five months of marriage. According to People, Bush filed for an annulment in February of 2006, and their divorce was final by the end of the year. Before the pair's divorce was finalized, however, Murray was engaged to Kenzie Dalton, a crew member on One Tree Hill and a senior at a Wilmington, North Carolina high school.

That's a lot of drama for any 24-year-old to cope with, and the fact that Bush was able to remain professional with her co-star until he left the show in 2009 proves she's far more resilient than most people. But according to the actress, the end of their marriage affected her more than she let on:

"The reality is that, yes, it was a massive event in my life. And the trauma of it was amplified by how public it became, which was incredibly foreign and bizarre to a girl who’d been just another college kid 24 months before her life blew up."

Still, Bush firmly believes that every relationship is a life lesson — which might be why she's able to stay so classy about the Murray stuff:

"I came to appreciate that relationships often serve a specific purpose at a certain point in time, for myriad reasons. Some are meant to heal you, some are meant to teach you how to build yourself up, and some are meant to show you how to trust your own intuition. You call in exactly whom and what you need over the course of your life, as you are learning life’s lessons."

Wise words. Now if only we could get Bush to walk us through our own breakups...